It was a day of victory for our broken rice dishes

Jakarta Sun, March 2nd, 2014

The last weekend was the victory weekend for our new loving broken rice menus. We got the highest record of orders for the Vietnamese broken rice menus.

The tender Australian import beef makes Com Tam Suon Bi Cha (Broken rice with beef…) the king of all broken rice menus. Most of our guests gave really good comment about it. As chefs, we think it’s not because of the Australian beef itself. It’s the sophistication of the combination of layers of BBQ garlicky sauce, sour pickle, fish sauce and a smoky taste of our secret in house spice that makes the dish unique.

Our Vietnamese Chef said she had found the ‘flavor of memory’ in this broken rice dish. And this is all what we wanted to hear from her.

Vietnamese broken rice, broken for a reason

Jakarta, Sat, Jan 18th, 2014

The crew is happy that the famous Vietnamese broken rice menu
eventually fit in with the rest of the menu book.

We can't remember when we first started working on this unique
rice dish, which is always a favorite to locals and foreigners alike. What we
know is that three months before we opened our original restaurant, our
Vietnamese chef taught us about this dish. At that time, we had tried many
different types of rice, and had worked with many different farmers and rice
mills across Indonesia. Even then, we couldn't get the right texture and the
taste that the Vietnamese broken rice gave us. As another solution, we even
tried importing the unique broken rice all the way from Vietnam. It was the
best solution at the time, but it didn't last for very long.

We are so proud that we were able to bring the broken rice menu
into our menu book. Looking back, we have gone through a long journey with the
broken rice project.

When we look at the plate of the finely crushed steamed broken
rice, and the satisfactory smile that our customers give us, we know that it
was worth the effort.

CHEF'S CORNER

Great! More rolling, less frying

Jakarta, Fri, May 23, 2014

Hmmm, actually, the rolling is not as easy as we thought from the beginning. Pho wrap is soft, smooth but thin. We want it to be thin but it’s easier to break. It takes some time for us to learn its behaviors though. The kitchen team have eaten enough the broken rolls that we don’t want to break it any more J

Of course, we still have to learn the sushi rolling skill from the Japanese. We have 1 more chef who can roll neat and nice these days.

Anyway, we are happy that we are doing more rolling, and less frying. We don’t like the combination of heat and oil, being in the Vietnamese kitchen.

Broken rice

Jakarta, Thu, Feb 2nd, 2014

Hmmm, we thought that fixing the taste and the texture of the broken
rice meant that we had done our job well. But, it was not that simple.

We started the broken rice menu concept with short beef ribs. We
tried all of the different ways to make the short ribs meat tender with no
success. Now, we use the imported Australian beef to get the soft, tender,
meaty and juicy taste. We trust that we are not wrong in making this decision.

New rice dish with short beef ribs

Singapore, Thu, Jan 9th, 2014

Today the Vietnamese chef was on her bi monthly trip home.
During this trip, she met her mother in Singapore, as the mother came to visit
the brother’s family in Singapore.

The new rice menus with short beef ribs idea was formed. Of
course, it’s an interesting new dish with yummy BBQ short ribs marinated with the
unique Vietnamese sauce.

But we have a real
challenge to solve: Should we grill the ribs on our traditional grill, or on a
grill pan, the Korean style? We think the grill pan is safer for your health
because it saves the meat from direct contact with fire. What about the taste?
What about the time to prepare the food? We can’t keep our diners waiting for
too long!!! Hmmm, we don’t know yet. We still need to discuss the idea with our
crew and kitchen consultant next week. Yes, whatever solution it is. We will
not compromise the taste.

New dish with short ribs

Jakarta, Mon, Jan 1st, 2014

We met up with the kitchen consultant today, as always, his take
on the matter was: "It won't cost us anything, but to try. I'll come back
with 2 solutions that might work". That's super cool! We have always liked
Andy for his 'can do' working mentality.

STAFF'S CORNER

Fantastic fresh bites

Singapore, Thu, May 15, 2014

Yes, it’s such a rewarding effort. Our guests enjoy more and more foods with vegetables. We are happy seeing that guests welcome our new menus, Pho rolls, so much.

It looks like the chefs enjoy the rolling job more than frying, even though the rolling requires more careful, neat, delicate skill to finish it.

A fresh bite from our garden

Singapore, Mon, Mar 18th, 2014

The brother is working in
Singapore this week. The brother had a phone meeting with the Chefs this
morning. He just informed us that we would be introducing a new dish, Pho
rolls. It was the first time we got to know that Pho can also roll. It’s
interesting!!!

When the brother was in Jakarta
4months ago. The company decided to invest local farmers in Ciganjur, who plant
and supply the Vietnamese herbs for us. From there, they decided to introduce a
new dish, fresh roll, which contains lots and lots of herbs and veggies.

Today, our Vietnamese chef
taught us how to make this new dish. As always, it comes with yummy, juicy
marinated meats and its unique dipping sauce.

According to the brother, tasty
healthy foods always come in with a good balance of protein (meat), carbo (noodle/rice),
fiber (veggies). The new dish has all these wonderful ingredients.

We know that veggies are good
for your health. And we know very well that the herbs that come from our garden
are even better, because we plant them with no chemicals and no insecticides.
We are proud of what the chefs are doing.

We are all excited. We can’t
wait to see how our customers would tell us about it.

Eat lots of vegetables like the Vietnamese

Jakarta, Thu, Mar 6th, 2014

After one year of trying to
convince our guests to eat and enjoy more healthy greens, we think we succeeded
to an extent.

Our service staffs have been
happy when seeing more and more customers ask for extra herbs and veggies to
add into their meals lately.

One day, we had proudly told
our Vietnamese chef about the improvements and also joked about how ‘the
vegetables are on demand’.She answered that, “In my home country, no one asks
for extra veggies”.We replied, taken aback “Oh, is it? How? We thought Vietnamese
loved veggies! Isn’t that the secret to how the Vietnamese women stay so
slim?!”The chef answered smiling, “The guests don’t have to ask
because there is always a basket of extra veggies put in the middle of the
table, just waiting for them.”Her good humor was appreciated and we tittered
and hooted. We replied with: “Ya, Ibu, we should encourage our guests to eat as
much vegetables as Vietnamese people do.”

In fact, we know that she is
working with her chefs to create a new dish, which incorporates the Vietnamese
love for vegetables concept. We are actually curious about this new dish that’s
coming soon!

We apologize for the inconvenience caused

Jakarta, Sun, Mar, 2014

Our weekend was overwhelming because on both Saturday and Sunday, we had
a full house from opening till closing. Our regulars came, but found no seats,
we had tried to rearrange the tables to accommodate the guests but, in the end,
we had to apologize

A very busy day

Jakarta, Wed, Jan 15th, 2014

It was a busy day for us. We had two reservations in one day.
Our restaurant manager had his weekly day off, but the crew managed very well.
We were very pleased when we saw the guests leave with good comments about the
food and service.

Closing for half a day

Jakarta, Fri, Jan 17th, 2014

During the monthly management team meeting this week, we agreed
to hold a formal trainingfor all of our staffson the following Monday on
Vietnamese foods and the service skills. We also will take this chance to train
our staff to serve the new dish, broken rice, the Vietnamese way. Due to this
important training session, we apologize to our regular guests because we will
be closing for a half day starting from 4:00 pm. We will starttelling our
guests about this so that they will not get disappointed when they come to
visit us.